Review: NJPW The New Beginning in Osaka 2025

I forgot this was on overnight until it was about halfway in, so chose to watch during the normal human being hours instead of backtracking and starting it at, like, 2:15 am. I’m a changed person these days.

• Live on February 11 from EDION Arena Osaka!

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Togi Makabe

One more meeting between Tanahashi and Makabe, their first meeting coming on October 10, 1999, at Korakuen Hall. Makabe — then Shinya Makabe — had Tanahashi’s number for years, winning their first 20 singles matches against one another into 2003, before Tanahashi went on a six-match win streak against Makabe into 2008.

Overall, Makabe is 22-14-1 over Tanahashi heading into this final singles encounter¹. So when you break it down, after those first 20 Young Lions era matches that Makabe won all of, Tanahashi has been dominant, going 14-2-1 in the last 17 matches.

Their last singles match came in the G1 Climax in 2018, with Tanahashi beating Makabe in Hamamatsu, and Makabe’s most recent win over Tanahashi was also a G1 match in 2016 in Machida.

The boys chop a little pretty early, and we go to the floor for a moment. It’s another Tanahashi Retirement Tour match, not exhibition, they’re working it for real, but it’s old fellas doing old fella wrestling, partially nostalgia play, partially just the sort of wrestling that loses itself to time over a star’s career, but has always been in there for them.

Tana hits the Tito Santana forearm then drops an elbow and a quick flip senton. Makabe with a nice German suplay with a bridge for two. He can’t believe it. I can! But he can’t. It’s his first wrestling match. Old man Makabe actually moving pretty well, which is probably because he always had an old guy’s skill set, so his rate of decline has been relatively slow, it’s not like he was zipping around when he was 35, and he’s about as quick now at 52 as he was then.